Liberation comes by surrendering service from maya to Krishna through knowledge, devotion, and the purifying power of holy names.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.27 — November 27, 1974, Bombay 741127SB-BOMBAY [39:30 Minutes] SB-03.25.27_741127SB-BOMBAY Nitāi: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.] asevayāyaṁ prakṛter guṇānāṁ jñānena vairāgya-vijṛmbhitena yogena mayy arpitayā ca bhaktyā māṁ pratyag-ātmānam ihāvarundhe [SB 3.25.27] [break] [02:30] "Thus by not engaging in the service of the modes of material nature, but by developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness, knowledge and renunciation, and by practicing yoga in which the mind is always fixed in devotional service under the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one achieves My association in this very life, for I am the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth." Prabhupāda: asevayāyaṁ prakṛter guṇānāṁ jñānena vairāgya-vijṛmbhitena yogena mayy arpitayā ca bhaktyā māṁ pratyag-ātmānam ihāvarundhe [SB 3.25.27] So, asevayā ayam.
What is our business at the present moment? We are serving māyā in different varieties. So māyā has got three modes—sattva, rajas, tamas, or mixed. Just like the color displayer, very expert in mixing color.
Actually there are three colors: blue, red and yellow. This blue, red, yellow, the color display of the mix—three into three equal to nine; nine into nine, it becomes eighty-one. So in this material world we, living entities, we are colored in this way. Three into three—sattva, raja, tamo-guṇa.
Three into three equal to nine, and nine multiplied by nine, eighty-one. So there eighty-one colorful living entities are there. Somebody is human being; somebody is demigod; somebody is cat; somebody is dog; somebody is servant; somebody is tree; somebody is plant... There are 8,400,000's of forms of life.
And that is our service. [dog barking in background] Just like the dog is barking. He's thinking that he is dog, so his business is barking. That means serving the laws of material nature.
Similarly, somebody is serving, somebody is serving in some way, somebody—varieties. Because we are not meant for this service. We are, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu teaches, jīvera svarūpa haya nitya-kṛṣṇa-dāsa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109]. Our main business is to serve Kṛṣṇa.
In Vṛndāvana, in Goloka Vṛndāvana, somebody is serving Kṛṣṇa as His friend, cowherd boy. Somebody is serving Kṛṣṇa as gopī, as lover. Somebody is serving Kṛṣṇa as father and mother, Mother Yaśodā, Nanda Mahārāja. Somebody is Kṛṣṇa's friend as servant, as tree, as water, as flower, as land, as cows, as calf.